Every LHBS in Portland is out of Sinamar, so I'm using Carafa II Spezial for my Black IPA. I don't know what to do with the water. My thinking is to treat it like a porter in the mash tun and then treat it like an IPA in the kettle. So I'm planning to add a tablespoon of chalk to the mash and then 2 teaspoons of gypsum to the kettle. Does this sound right to everyone? Also, should I drop the corn sugar? Recipe below.

6 gal (because the hops will absorb so much wort, and I want 5.5 gal in primary)

Don't worry about being out of the Sinamar, Carafa does as well or better. The trick is to cold sparge the black malt. Many breweries are adding it directly to the mash tun after they start sparging. Drop your sparge temperature to 155 to 165, the lower being better.

On water treatments, think of this as an IPA, if you treat your IPA, treat this beer also. Good luck

Don't worry about being out of the Sinamar, Carafa does as well or better. The trick is to cold sparge the black malt. Many breweries are adding it directly to the mash tun after they start sparging. Drop your sparge temperature to 155 to 165, the lower being better.

On water treatments, think of this as an IPA, if you treat your IPA, treat this beer also. Good luck

So you're saying I should not add the carafa until I have drained the first runnings? And then I should sparge colder than usual (I batch sparge). Would this amount of carafa still do it?

I followed the "add carafa with sparge water" method, and I treated my water as an IPA and it worked great - an outstanding beer and the best black IPA I've had (well, Hopworks Secession Black is also damn good).

In re "cold sparging the black malt," is this approach recommended to reduce the astringency (much like cold water percolation of coffee)?

Why not just steep the black malt separately (i.e., with nylon mesh bags) with what ever temps you prefer and continue the sparging at more ideal temps (i.e., 168 F) to facilitate lautering? Just add the separately-steeped black malt directly to the mash tun part way through the sparging process if you want to try and filter out all the small particles or, if you are using a very fine nylon mesh bag, then dump straight into the kettle.

Actually, you can cold steep the dark malts for an even smoother flavor. It works really well. Here's George Fix's take on it..

George Fix on Cold Steeping

Question to Dr. Fix:

>On the Brews & Views discussion board a couple months ago, someone mentioned a talk you gave regarding cold steeping of malts like Munich. I would very much appreciate it if you would elaborate on this technique. How do you do it, what does it do for the brew, what malts are good candidates for this technique.

Dr. Fix:

The talk was in the NCHF at Napa in October. Those folks on the left coast really know how to do a beer festival! The cold steeping procedure was designed to maximize the extraction of desirable melanoidins, and at the same time minimize the extraction of undesirable ones. The former are simple compounds which yield a fine malt taste. The undesirable ones come from more complicated structures. Polymers with sulfur compounds tend to have malt/vegetable tones. Others yield cloying tones, which to my palate have an under fermented character. The highest level melanoidins can even have burnt characteristics. The cold steeping procedure was developed by Mary Ann Gruber of Briess. My version goes as follows.

(i) One gallon of water per 3-4 lbs. of grains to be steeped is brought to a boil and held there for 5 mins. (ii) The water is cooled down to ambient, and the cracked grains are added. (iii) This mixture is left for 12-16 hrs. at ambient temperatures, and then added to the brew kettle for the last 15-20 mins. of the boil.

Mary Ann has had good results by adding the steeped grains directly to the fermenter without boiling, however I have not tried that variation of the procedure.

The upside of cold steeping is that it works. The downside is that it is very inefficient both with respect to extract and color. In my setup I am using 2-3 times the malt that would normally be used. As a consequence I have been using it for "adjunct malts" such as black and crystal. I also am very happy with the use of Munich malts with this process when they are used as secondary malts.